Rotary engine.



17 777.968. PATENTED DEC. 20, 1904. s. MAOKIN.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLIQATION FILED 001'. 6, 1904. no MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Iii/Twas E\\\/ Y 7 Witnesses v Inventor.

[@9 I Attorneys Patented December 20, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

' SAMUEL MACKIN, OF LAREDO, TEXAS.

ROTARY ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 777,968, dated December 20, 1904.

Application filed October 6, 1904. Serial No. 227,436.

To (1% whom it may 007L0677L:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL lVlAOKIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Laredo, in the county of l/Vebb and State of Texas, have invented a new and useful Rotary Engine, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to rotary engines, and has for one of its objects to provide a simple form of engine so arranged that steam-pressure will be constantly exerted on some portion of the piston throughout each rotation of the shaft.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved form of valve mechanism in which cut-out and reversing valves are arranged concentrically, the cut-off valve re-' ceiving continuous rotary movement and having a plurality of ports that are successively brought to operative position.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel form of piston-wing guide for projecting and retracting the piston-wings and thus lessening the wear between the end of the wing and the inner wall of the cylin der, said guide being detachable to permit its ready renewal in case of wear.

With these and other objects in view, as will more fully hereinafter appear, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction and arrangement of parts herein after fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportions, size, and minor details of the structure may be made without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a transverse sectional elevation of a rotary engine constructed in accordance with the inven tion. Fig. 2 isa sectional plan View of the same on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an elevation of the central partition or cylinderhead detached. Fig. 4 is a detail perspective view of the reversing-valves detached. Fig. 5 is aview, partly in section. of a portion of the engine, illustrating more particularly the reversing-lever and its connection with the valves.

Similar numerals of reference are employed to indicatecorresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

The engine in the present case is of the twocylinder type, the cylinders 10 and 11 being provided with a common base 12 and separated from each other by a partition or central head 13. The outer heads 14 and 15 are provided with stufling-boxes of the usual-type, and through these extends a shaft 16, said shaft also passing through an opening in the central partition.

On the shaft are secured two cylindrical piston-drums 17 and 18, both of precisely the same construction and each provided with a 'pairof diametrically opposed radial slots 20 for the reception of piston-wings 21, the outer edges being provided with packing-strips 22 and similar packing-strips being disposed at the ends of the wings, if desired. The piston-wings of one piston are arranged at a right angle to the wings of the other piston, and the valve mechanism is so arranged that at least two of the wings will at all times be moving under direct steam-pressure.

The cylinder is approximately elliptical in form, its smallest diameter being but slightly greater than the diameter of the cylindrical piston-drum, and the walls of the cylinder are provided with slots or grooves for the reception of packing-strips 24:, which may be held outward against the periphery of the pistondrum by suitable springs or by pressure of the actuating fluid, these strips forming two diametrically opposed abutments and dividing the cylinder into two steam-chambers, both of which are provided with steam inlet and exhaust ports.

The piston-wings slide radially in the slots 20, and their outer faces remain constantly in contact with the inner wall of the cylinder. In order to reduce the wear or friction between the ends of the wings and the cylinderwall, the central partition and the two piston ends are provided with elliptical tracks 27. These tracks are formed of channel-iron properly shaped and arranged within recesses 28, so that the outer edges of the parallel webs of the channel-iron make contact with the side walls of the piston, but not to an extent sufficient to result in wear From the opposite ends of each wing project pins or antifrictionrollers 29, that enter the guiding-tracks, and as the shape of the latter conforms to the crosssectional contour of the cylinder the pistonwings will be moved accordingly and will be drawn in and out as the piston revolves, so that there will be little or no wear between the outer edges of the piston-wings and the curved wall of the cylinder, the wear being almost wholly taken up by the pins 29 and the tracks 27, both pins and tracks being detachable to permit their renewal when worn.

At diametrically opposite points the walls of the cylinders are enlarged to form cylinder-valve chambers 30 31,and from these chambers lead ports 32, two of said ports leading from each chamber to a point on opposite sides, respectively, of each abutment-seat 24, and either of the ports may serve as an inlet, while the other acts as an exhaust.

In the cylinder-wall of each valve-chamber are four ports or steam-channels 33, 34, 35, and 36, these ports being preferably in the form of a number of openings connected to a main channel in order to lessen the wear. The ports 33 and 34 are steam-ports and are in communication with a main steam-port 37, leading around, the upper portion of the central partition, the steam-supply pipe being coupled to the top of the partition, while the exhaust leads from the bottom of said partition. The two ports 35 and 36 are exhaustports and are in communication with a passage 40, leading to the main exhaust-port.

In the two valve-chambers 30 and 31 at the opposite sides of the cylinders are reversingvalves 42 43, respectively. These valves are cylindrical in form and are bored for the reception of cut-off valves 44 45. The reversing-valve 43 is first placed in position in the chamber 31, and over its projecting hub 46 is placed the central partition 13. Then the cylinder 11 is placed in position, and the second reversing-Valve 30 is put in place, the hub 47 of the valve 42 extending also into the opening in the partition. The hub 46 is provided with a transversely-extending slot 48, and the end of the hub 47 is cut away to form a tongue that extends into said slot and forms a coupling between the two reversing-valves, so that movement imparted to one will be transmitted to the other. To the outer end of the reversing-valve 30 is connected a hollow stem 50, said spring extending through a stulfingbox 51 in the cylinder-head 15, and to each of said stems is secured a roeker-arm 52, both rocker-arms being connected by links 53 to a reversing-lever 54, that is pivoted on a stud 55 at one end of the engine.

In each of the reversing-valves is formed a number of ports, the ports 56, 57, 58, and 59 being the steam-ports and passing entirely through the cylindrical wall of the valve. The port is an exhaust-port and extends through the outer portion of the valve, but, does not communicate with the interior thereof, both ends of the port being open at the periphery of said valve. When the valves are in the position shown in Fig. 1, the upper port 32 at the right of the engine is in communication with the exhaust-port 60 and through said port with the exhaust-port 35. On the opposite side the lower port 32 is in communication, through the exhaust-port 60, with the exhaustport 36, and the exhaust is always opened to permit the free passage of steam and water of condensation.

At the right of the engine the two ports 56 and 57 are blanked, while port 58 is in communication with the steam-inlet port 32, and the port 59 is in communication with the steamsupply port or passage 54. On the opposite side of the engine the ports 58 and 59 are blanked, while port 57 is in communication with the steam-inlet port and port 56 communicates with the steam inlet or supply passage 33. By moving the reversing-lever the positions of these ports may be readily changed so that the upper port 32 at the right of the engine and the lower port 32 at the left of the engine serve as steam-inlet ports, while the remaining cylinder ports serve as exhausts. This permits ready reversal of the direction of rotation of the engine.

The two cut-off valves 44 and 45 are mounted on stems 62. Each stem 62 extends down through the hollow stem 50, and in the end of stem 50 is a stuffing-box 63 to prevent escape of steam. The valves 44 and 45 are each provided with four ports 64, and owing to the fact that the wings'of one piston are at a right angle to the wings of the other piston the ports of the two cut-off valves are arranged in slightly-different positions that is to say, if the four ports 64 of the valve 44 are disposed in horizontal and vertical planes, crossing the axis of the stem 62, the corresponding ports of the valve 45 will be disposed in planes crossing the axis of the stem, but disposed at angles of forty-five degrees from the horizontal and vertical planes.

At the outer end of each stem 62 is secured a gear-wheel 65, and with these gears engages a pinion 66, carried by the main shaft 16, the pinion being half the diameter of each gear 65, so that one complete revolution of the shaft will result in a half-revolution of each of the valvestems, thus bringing two of the ports 64 to operative position.

As each of the cut-elf valves rotates it will bring the port 64 in communication with two of the steam-ports of the reversing-valve. Thus at the right of the engine-port 64 will place the ports 58 and 59 in communication with each other and steam will pass from the main supply to the lower portion of the cylinder. After the piston has made a half-revolution a second of the ports 64 will assume operative position. In corresponding manner the valve at the opposite side of the engine will admit steam to the upper portion of the cylinder. The wings of the respective piston-drums being disposed at right angles to each other and the valves arranged with their ports at an angle of forty-five degrees from the center, it follows that steam will be flowing to the cylinders and will be acting at all times on at least two of the piston-wings. The size of the port 64 is determined by the character of the engine. The larger the port the greater the amount of steam admitted and the smaller the port the less the amount of steam, so that steam may be used eXpansively during a portion of the operation.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is 1. In a rotary engine, a cylinder having a cylindrical valve-chamber, a piston within the cylinder, a hollow cylindrical reversing-valve in said chamber, steam-exhaust ports extending from the wall of the chamber to the cylinder, and to main supply and exhausts, steamexhaust ports disposed in said reversing-valve, and a continuously-revoluble cut-oft valve disposed in the cylindrical reversing-valve and provided with a plurality of ports that are successively brought to operative position.

2. In a rotary engine, a cylinder having a valve-chamber, a piston within the cylinder, a cylindrical reversing-valve disposed in the chamber, the wall of said chamber being provided with ports in communication with the cylinder and with main supply and exhausts, steam-ports arranged in two sets and extending entirely through the wall of the reversing-valve, exhaust-ports leading through the body of the reversing-valve without communicating with the interior thereof, a cut-off valve arranged within the reversing-valve and provided with a plurality of ports that are successively brought to operative position, and gearing connections between the cut-off valves and main shaft of the engine, whereby said cut-off valve is continuously revoluble in one direction.

3. In a rotary engine, a pair of cylinders arranged side by side and provided with alining valve-chambers, a central partition forming a head for both cylinders, pistons formed in the cylinders, cut-off valves in the form-of hollow cylinders disposed within said chambers, and each provided with a hub extending through an opening in said partition, the hub of one being transversely slotted, and the hub of the other being reduced to form a tongue fitting within said slot, ports arranged in said re versing-valve for controlling the direction of flow of the steam, and continuously-revoluble cut-off valves disposed within the reversingvalves and provided with peripheral ports that are successively brought to operative position.

4. In a rotary engine, a pair of cylinders arranged side by side and provided with alining valve-chambers, a central partition dividing the two cylinders and forming a head for each, a shaft, piston-drums mounted on the shaft, hollow reversing-valves disposed in the chambers and provided with ports for controlling the direction of flow of the actuating fluid, a coupling means between the ends of the valves, a valve-stem extending through both valves, revoluble cut-ofi valves arranged within the reversing-valves and secured to said stem, said cut-off valves having a plurality of peripheral ports that are successively brought to operative position, the stems of the cut-off and reversing valves being concentric, and the stem of the latter being provided with a stuffing-box for the passage of the cut-offvalve stem.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto afiixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

SAMUEL MAOKIN.

WVitnesses:

J. R. MOORE, T. WORMSER. 

